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Tin Pan Alley
When you hear the phrase “tin pan alley,” if you think of anything at all, you probably think of the US music business. The term began to be used around the turn of the 20th Century, and at the time referred to a specific location: 28th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue. That was where Continue reading
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Honk!
Sometimes you hear a performance called the performer’s “swan song.” It’s supposed to mean that it’s a last performance. The final speech of an ousted politician is sometimes called the same thing. But what do swans have to do with it, and why a song? Swans don’t sing — different kinds of swans make different Continue reading
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Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer born April 12, 1883. Her parents named her “Imogen” after the character in Cymbeline, a play by Shakespeare. She was born in Portland, Oregon, and was interested in art from a very early age. The schools there didn’t teach art, but her parents sent her to art lessons and Continue reading
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Not Exactly Eli
If you visit Yale University, you might view the portico of Davenport College, or even catch a glimpse of the official banner of the university’s president. If you do, you’ll see a yale. Not, mind you, a Yale — that would be a direct descendant of Elihu Yale, who was a governor of the British Continue reading
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Tawdry
Around the year 750, the Venerable Bede wrote about a woman named Ethelreda. She had been the daughter of King Anna, who in spite of his name, was a king, not a queen. He was the king of East Anglia, which was pretty small as kingdoms go — it was only the size of what’s Continue reading
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Joseph Pulitzer
Pulitzer Prizes come and Pulitzer Prizes go, but today is Pulitzer’s Birthday! Joseph Pulitzer was born April 10, 1847 in Hungary, which was a monarchy at the time. As a boy he would have been known as Pulitzer Jozsef, because that’s the customary name order in Hungarian. His father was a successful businessman, and was Continue reading
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Coyly, now
Pay attention, if you can, without batting an eye. That is, don’t play baseball with your eyelids. No, wait, that’s not right. Don’t flap your eyelids like bat wings…er…but that’s not how bats fly, as far as I know. What I mean is…well never mind that; let’s figure out what’s going on with “batting eyes.” Continue reading
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Some of the features of the infrastructure of the modern world include bridges with very wide spans, tunnels under rivers, standardized railroads, ships driven by propellers, ships that are really big and made of steel…I could go on. An amazing number of these were first designed and built by one man: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity.
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peterharbeson@me.com